|
Creating Trust, Commitment and Confidence
“You stand up to that challenging shot, you put yourself into that shot, and you pour yourself into it confidently. Stand up and commit yourself completely. If you miss it, you miss it certainly. You’ve done everything you can.” Debbie Massey, two-time British Open Champion
As I watched the last few holes of regulation of the Masters on Sunday, never mind the playoff, I knew that Angel Cabrera was going to pull it out. It was evident in his body language and facial expression that he was on a mission, that he was confident and believed. It was also evident that Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell where going to fold. You could see that they were in their own heads, thinking the wrongs things.
When you read or hear about the importance of the mental game you frequently come across the words trust, commitment and confidence. You have to commit to the shot and target. You have to trust the decision and that your body will produce what you have trained it and programmed it to do. And you have to have confidence in your ability to execute it. But what does this mean? How do these words relate to golf performance and most importantly, how does a player get or create them?
Let’s start with confidence because this game does truly revolve around confidence. Confidence is created through positive experience as well as positive visualization, self-talk and affirmations. Confidence is positive self-talk and visualization along with positive emotions or feelings. At its core, it’s an attitude that reflects true belief. Visualizing and/or telling yourself “I’ve got this” with doubt, questions and negative feelings is useless. It’s essentially, going through the motions (with no or the wrong emotion). It’s attempting to fool the mind and body, and that rarely works.
Over the years I have talked about the various positive emotions and how that ties in with the other mental factors and performance. Well, true confidence is the combination of these three. It is the positive visualization, internal dialogue and feeling. It's talking the talk and walking the walk. Some describe it as excitement or joyful expectation while others say it’s a warm and fuzzy feeling that they get. But it is a feeling. It’s knowing that you can do it.
What it all translates into is the supreme belief that you are going to execute the shot. It’s seeing it in your mind. It’s feeling the perfect swing with your body. It’s hearing and feeling solid ball contact off the face. It’s telling yourself repeatedly that you’ve got it (with conviction), and knowing and feeling that you’ve got it.
This is where many players get confused and miss out on the true definition and experience of confidence and visualization. It’s authentically recreating the experience as if it’s actually happening (seeing, hearing, feeling with the correct emotion). It’s a skill that anyone can develop but few do because they don’t practice it. So how do you do that?
Simple. Make a list of experiences that evoke those emotions in you. Make a list of every great shot that you have hit in your life with every club in your bag. Jot down other experiences in your life, inside and outside of sport, that have given you that special confident, joyful feeling. Take a few minutes a day to reflect on those experiences (truly visualize) and feel the pride, joy or elation that you experienced just as when it was occurring or after it occurred. Work on evoking those emotions on the range and practice green as you practice.
By doing this, you will train yourself to conjure up or create the proper emotion when you need it (as part of your pre-competitive preparation and pre-shot routines). That being said, make it a part of your pre-competitive preparation and pre-shot routines.
And as far as commitment and trust, you will find that the more you truly build confidence, the easier that it will be to make decisions with definitiveness and then let your body go without hesitation or conscious interference.
©2009 Achievement Solutions
All Rights Reserved.
Weekly Sponsor:
Anyone who knows golf, knows that to score well you have to putt well. In fact, 40% of round is determined by putting. Putting is the great equalizer. Anyone can learn to putt like a pro and now there is a new lesson manual that is being heralded as the greatest putting book ever written. If you want to learn to read greens, build a reliable stroke and putt like the big boys then check this out. For only $14.95 with a money back guarantee, it's a steal. Click here for more information or to order!
If you enjoy these tips and think a friend will too, forward it to them or click here and we will send it for you |